Parole Board Recommends Against Clemency For Killer Scheduled Next For Execution

The Parole Board heard the case for and against clemency for Alva Campbell Jr. on October 12.

Karen Kasler

The state parole board has voted 11-1 to recommend Gov. John Kasich deny clemency to Alva Campbell Jr., the next inmate scheduled to be executed in Ohio. The report follows the clemency hearing for Campbell last week.

Listen

Listening...

/

0:50

Public defender David Stebbins told the parole board Campbell’s upbringing included some of the worst abuse he’s ever heard, and that the defense didn’t fully present that to the jury. “These gaps were filled with inaccurate narratives that were used to justify Alva’s death sentence," Stebbins said.

Campbell, who was convicted of a 1972 murder, carjacked and killed 18 year old Charles Dials during an attempted escape from the Franklin County courthouse in 1997. Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien tried the case. “I will tell you this – Mr. Campbell is the most violent criminal, without question, of any case I have worked on,” O'Brien said.

One member of the parole board agreed with Stebbins, but the rest recommended against clemency. Campbell has admitted guilt, but his attorneys are also arguing he’s too sick to lie flat on the execution table.

Ohio has more execution dates set than any other state. And a new report from Harvard Law School shows most of those condemned inmates have serious mental and intellectual impairments. And the group suggests that could pose a constitutional problem.

The state of Ohio executed its first death row inmate in more than three years today (Wednesday) after a questionable lethal injection in 2014 sparked a long legal battle over how the state carries out the death penalty. This execution seemed to have a very different result.